SOHU Inc may spin off its search engine Sogou after Alibaba Group invested in the company last month.

Sohu will not seek other investors in Sogou, Chief Executive Officer Charles Zhang said at the World Economic Forum in Tianjin on Tuesday.

According to a framework agreement signed in early August, Alibaba Group and Yunfeng Fund LP, a private equity firm backed by Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma, will hold a 16 percent stake in the search engine.

Zhang will also take a 16 percent stake by buying preferred shares. The remaining 68 percent is held by Sohu.

This was regarded as Sohu's latest move to boost its search business through collaboration with Alibaba, the nation's leading e-commerce company and owner of the country's largest online shopping platform Taobao.com.

Zhang reiterated that they plan on Sogou eventually becoming the second-largest domestic search engine behind Baidu.

Baidu had a 70.8 percent market share in the domestic search market in the second quarter, according to Internet consultancy iResearch Inc. Google had a 27.3 percent share and Sogou was third with 0.8 percent.